House Passes Patent Office Reform Bill

By a vote of 304 – 117, the House passed HR 1249, the America Invents Act. The measure streamlines patent and trademark application procedures, changes the current “First to Invent” requirement to “First to File”, and shifts the cost of maintaining the Patent Office from the Federal Budget to applicant and user fees. This latter saves taxpayers $717 million over the next ten years.

In a mixed bipartisan vote, 67 Republicans and 50 Democrats voted against the bill, saying that the funding changes would stifle the ability of individual entrepreneurs to compete with corporations with R&D funding sources.